Keeping Secrets
by lastnameleft
Summary: Dom's done looking for Letty but his family is going to have to change that. Post-F5. Dom/Letty
1. Chapter 1

It's been a while but I've been a busy girl the last couple of months. One of the movie channels is playing the first, second, and fourth movies over and over all day today, though, so I couldn't resist. Totally separate story from Forget Berlin. This one is starting out a couple of days after Hobbes & Fuentes talk about Letty being in Berlin.

Rosa smiled sadly while she watched Nico snore softly in her bed before pulling the door shut quietly and continuing on into the kitchen to finish cleaning up from their dinner. After Vince's funeral she and Nico had moved into an upscale apartment building in Rio with plenty of security and neighbours who were only interested in their own lives. She had invested most of Vince's cut from the heist to ensure that she and Nico wouldn't have to worry about money for the rest of either of their lives. The financial security wasn't worth it, though, she thought bitterly to herself. The luxurious apartment and nice things that they both had were an awful trade for the constant loneliness she felt. Every second of the day she waged an internal battle with herself – was it better that Nico would never remember the man that she missed constantly or was it wholly unfair that he never got the chance to remember his father. Though she couldn't bring herself to admit it, most days she was relieved that she didn't have to explain to him why he didn't get to see his daddy anymore.

When she heard the soft knock at the door Rosa jumped, pulled from her thoughts. Security hadn't announced any visitors so she assumed that one of her neighbours was on the other side. What she never expected was the tiny, scowling brunette standing in the hallway, dwarfed by a bulging backpack and too-baggy jeans.

"_Oh meu Deus" _Rosa whispered, her eyes wide.

"I, um, I know you don't know me -" Letty started, biting her lip and struggling to remember why she had thought this was a good idea. Her voice faltered as her eyes settled on the wall behind Rosa. Beside the altar dedicated to Vince was a smaller one, at the centre of which was the same photo of her and Dom that Letty knew had been displayed at her own funeral.

Rosa's eyes followed Letty's and she smiled softly. "Vince set it up in our old apartment," she explained, stepping back to let Letty into the entry. "It wouldn't have been right not to bring it with us when we moved."

"I'm so sorry to have shown up without any warning. I didn't know where else to go," Letty said softly, even more uncomfortable than she had been moments before.

"Any friend of Vince's is welcome. Even dead friends."

"Oh, uh, yeah. That's kinda why I'm here. Rosa I need to stay dead."

"Dominic will be here in a few days with Brian & Mia. I can't lie to him, not after everything he has done for us," Rosa said apologetically, leading Letty into the spacious kitchen and handing her a Corona.

Letty nodded and looked around nervously before she spoke. "You don't need to lie for me - I promise he won't have a reason to ask any questions. I'll be gone long before he gets here. I just need to lie low for a night, make some changes, and I'll be gone."

Rosa cringed inwardly at the pleading look in Letty's eyes. She knew from everything that Vince had ever told her about Letty that there was no way Letty would ask for help from anyone unless her life depended on it, let alone a total stranger. Rosa didn't say anything else, instead gesturing for Letty to follow her into a large guest bedroom. She watched Letty drop her black backpack on the floor and begin to dig through it before she left without a word, closing the door behind her.

It was almost an hour later before Rosa returned, knocking quietly before letting herself into the room when she heard Letty call out.

"Letty?" she said quietly, "I made you something to eat."

"Thanks, Rosa. For everything." Letty replied, walking out of the bathroom and smiling gratefully as she accepted the plate. Rosa smiled at Letty's childlike posture, cross-legged on the floor, her body curled around the food she was quickly devouring like she hadn't eaten in days.

"You weren't kidding about changes," Rosa whispered incredulously.

Letty was wearing the same baggy jeans and black wife beater she had arrived in but everything else about her was different. Her long black hair was a warm caramel colour, cut into a chin length bob. Her dark eyes were pale green and there was a shiny metal ring in the middle of her bottom lip. The most amazing part was the makeup – Letty had gone from clean-faced and paler than any picture of her Rosa had seen to a deep tan, comparable with Rosa's own dark skin and her nose and cheeks were covered by a smattering of freckles.

"Not bad, hey?" Letty said with a grin, her plate already clean.

"I wouldn't recognize you," Rosa agreed. "You dress like a boy, though. There are clothes in the closet - we're close to the same size. Get some sleep, Letty. Take what you need."

The next morning Rosa woke early, unsurprised when she found the room Letty stayed in looking as though it had never been touched. She checked the closet, smiling softly at the handful of empty spaces before returning to her room and crawling back into her bed where Nico was sleeping soundly. Nico snuggled closer to her, waking only enough to lay his head on her chest and wrap his chubby fingers around a lock of her hair. Rosa stayed awake, however, staring at the ceiling and replaying the surreal events of the previous night over in her head. She had never known Letty so it was easy enough to stay calm when the supposedly dead woman had shown up on her doorstep. But with the rest of letty's family showing up in the next few days she wondered what sort of secret she had really been asked to keep


	2. Chapter 2

"No sign of Elena," Brian pointed out, saying it quiet enough that only Mia and the tiny blue bundle she held tight against her chest could hear.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? She called last night, said she's busy with work so she's not coming this time," his fiance answered in the same low tone, despite the fact that Dominic Toretto was still getting off of his chartered plane and was much too far away to hear anything they said. Since Dom and Elena had moved to Australia she had kept herself busy running a small private securities company. Brian and Mia knew she spent most of her time in the office but because they lived in Fiji and were absorbed in life with their 6 week old son they didn't know much else.

"Again?" Brian said skeptically before being silenced by a pointed look from Mia as Dom walked towards them carrying two large duffle bags.

"Dom!" Mia squealed, turning to let her brother wrap his arms around her and peek down at his tiny nephew.

"You're lucky that kid doesn't look too much like you, O'Connor," Dom grinned before kissing his sister on the top of the head. "We really don't need anymore pasty pretty boys in this family."

Brian laughed and hugged his friend before nodding his head to his waiting SUV and guiding Mia away.

The drive to Rosa's was short and familiar - Dom, Brian, and Mia visited Rosa and Nico at least once a month. She had quickly become part of their family, both for the connection to Vince that she provided and the ease with which she and Mia had become close friends. The doorman and security guards were familiar with Rosa's "cousins" from out of town who visited regularly and sent them straight upstairs with nods and smiles.

Rosa was in the doorway of her condo when they got off the elevator, smiling broadly. "Nico is napping but he'll be up soon," she said with a smile before hugging Mia and easing her new nephew into her arms. "Ah, você é lindo," she cooed at the baby. "Little Jesse - you look just like your Daddy, don't you?" Before anyone could respond, though, Rosa's face changed ever so slightly and her voice became purposeful. "You'll switch rooms for this visit," she said suddenly, leading them inside and steering Dom in particular away from the room Letty had slept in a few nights before and towards the second guest room, the one Brian and Mia usually slept in. "The front room doesn't get as much sun, it will be better for when baby Jesse is napping."

Brian raised his eyebrows but Mia just shrugged and nodded him (and their significant pile of luggage) to the room that Rosa was determinedly leading Dom away from.

The rest of the visit was uneventful - Nico was thrilled when the larger of Dom's duffel bags was filled with presents for him and Jesse, and Rosa did her best to act as natural as possible. The closest she came to divulging the secret she wasn't sure she should keep was when she found Dom standing in her front entry in the middle of the night staring at Vince's shrine for Letty, his lips moving with no sound coming out, a lost expression on his face. She kept it to herself, though, hoping that if and when her new family did find out that Letty was alive they would understand why she couldn't tell them.

_Six months later_

"This is for you," Rosa said with a smile as she opened her front door. She held out a key and waited for Letty, still with her dark skin and freckles but her hair newly dark red, to take it and come inside. It was after midnight but Rosa hadn't seen Letty in a couple of months so she hadn't been surprised by the quiet knock on her door.

"A key?" Letty said with a smirk, tossing her backpack onto the bed in the front guest room before following Rosa into the kitchen and hopping onto a bar stool. "I didn't know we were getting this serious or I would have gotten you a present too."

"Oh shut up," Rosa laughed, putting a plate of food in front of Letty and rolling her eyes at the tiny woman's seemingly endless appetite and attitude. "I just don't want you to end up without somewhere to stay if you are in Rio while Nico and I are visiting Mia and Brian in Fiji next month. We'll be gone for three weeks so I'll leave food in the freezer just in case."

"You're too good to me, Rosa. Really."

"Don't I know it," Rosa sighed.

"I really do appreciate it," Letty said quietly, her appetite suddenly gone as she pushed food around on her plate. "I know it's not easy to lie to them. He's been here recently, hasn't he?"

Rosa nodded but didn't speak, her mind swimming. Letty had showed up on her doorstep a handful more times in the past few months, every time looking at least a bit different. She never seemed nervous and had never asked about Dom but Rosa's housekeeper always found something of his when Letty's room was cleaned in the morning. A tshirt he left behind on his last visit or a pillow from the room that he slept in. Rosa didn't know when during the night Letty snuck to the other guest room to take something and figured it was for the best that she didn't ask. Every time Dom came to visit, though, whether alone or with Brian and Mia (never with Elena anymore, Rosa noted), he seemed to appraise everything in the house as though he was searching for something. Whenever she found him with the sad eyes of a child missing their best friend she had to leave the room to avoid saying anything.

"It's better this way, Rosa. Just like it's better that you don't know why. It's safer." Letty paused, her eyes lingering on a picture on the refrigerator of Dom and Nico playing on the beach. "I'll stop, if you want. I can find somewhere else to stay."

"Don't be ridiculous. You are just as welcome here as he is. You're family, Letty, even if you're the most complicated kind of family."

The two women hugged before retiring to their own rooms, each struggling with their own secrets and the knowledge of the inevitability that those secrets would hurt someone they loved.

_Five weeks later_

"If you're done then STOP. FUCKING. CALLING." Dom yelled into his cellphone, ending the call and slamming it down on the table.

"Jesus, Dom, calm down," Mia sighed. "You really don't have a right to be the hysterical yelling person in this break-up."

"Stay out of it, Mia," he growled as Rosa and Brian suddenly heard imaginary baby cries and bolted for the nursery.

"If you weren't yelling about it in my friggin kitchen, I would. But since you are, you get to listen to me. You cheated on her, you get all fucking moody and avoid her, hell, you even go on trips without her. She left her whole life for you. So, yeah, she's entitled to be pissed at you even if she is the one who moved out."

Dom glowered at his sister but knew she was right. He had treated Elena horribly and deserved every bit of anger she had. Moving back to Rio had showed her that her career as a police officer was over and he was to blame. He paused for a long stretch before he met his sister's eyes and sighed. "I've got to go talk to her, don't I. At least tell her I'm sorry."

"Yeap, you do." Mia smiled sadly at her brother and left the room so that he could book a plane.

By that evening Dom was letting himself into Rosa's quiet apartment, having borrowed her keys so he had somewhere to stay in Rio. He wasn't sure why she had hesitated before handing them over but he hadn't thought much of it - he had promised with a grin not to snoop in her stuff or make a mess and she had told him where to find takeout menus because she had no food in her freezer.

Dom hadn't told Elena he was coming to Rio so when her name flashed on his caller ID he ignored it. Instead he turned his phone off and tossed it on the kitchen counter before taking a shower. He stood under the water, frustrated at his mind's inability to clear itself. Every time he tried to figure out how to talk to Elena and make right the hurt he had caused for her he pictured Letty instead. Letty at 6, indignant at her mother making her wear a dress to her first day of school. Letty at 10, spending hours in Mia's bedroom helping her cry when Dom & Mia's mother left them and their father to return to the Dominican Republic with her childhood sweetheart. Letty at 14, skipping school every day to attend his trial, and at 16, a woman instead of a little girl waiting for him when he got out of prison, the only person who didn't treat him any differently than when he went in. Frustrated at his inability to go a single night without memories of Letty pushing their way into every thought he had, Dom gave up on his shower and the single Corona he found on the bottom shelf of Rosa's fridge before finally falling into a dreamless sleep.

A few hours later Dom was sleeping soundly as Letty let herself into Rosa's apartment and sighed contentedly in the silence. She was exhausted from days of travelling and bypassed the kitchen where she would have seen a strange cellphone, empty beer bottle, and a plate covered in pizza crusts littering the counter. Instead she went straight to bed, falling asleep on top of the covers in her lace boy shorts and a white wife beater of Dom's that she had taken from the laundry room the last time she visited. She slept fitfully at best, her dreams clouded with thoughts of the man whose scent surrounded her.

Dom woke with a start and searched for his cellphone to check the time before groaning when he remembered that it was in the kitchen so that he could avoid Elena's calls. He opened his eyes enough to confirm that it was still dark outside but before he could start to fall asleep again he heard a strangled cry coming from outside his room. He jumped out of bed, instantly awake, and grabbed the Browning M1911 that was never out of his sight from under his pillow. He followed the sound of someone sounding alternately angry and terrified down the hall to the other guest bedroom and quietly eased the door open.

Dominic Toretto was not one for surprises and, even more, he did not show it even on the rare occasions that he was surprised. But when his sleep-clouded eyes focused on the figure thrashing around on the large bed, reaching even in sleep for the gun that matched his own that rested on the nightstand, his face betrayed every bit of surprise that he felt. Her skin was darker and her long, dark red hair was a mass of tight curls, but he knew the second he saw her: Letty was fast asleep in front of him, having the same violent nightmares that he'd been waking her up from since she was a little girl.


	3. Chapter 3

_So sorry this story is taking so much longer than Forget Berlin did - when I was writing Berlin I had a squishy baby who slept on my lap while I wrote. Now I've got a toddler who empties cereal boxes and draws on the furniture while I write. Little slower going but I promise the story is going somewhere. Thanks for all the reviews, hearing what all of you think is so great & gives me a million new ideas for the directions the story should go._****

**-**

Dom's knees threatened to give out as he stood staring at Letty, fast asleep but very much alive. The room was dark but the moon shone in through the open window, highlighting her tiny frame's uncanny ability to take over a bed that should be able to accommodate three more people. Before he could form a coherent thought Dom's body betrayed him, falling into the same routine he had every time Letty had a nightmare. He was across the room in an instant, pulling her onto his chest as he was climbing into the bed. He was careful to restrain her arms to protect himself but gentle enough not to startle her awake. Even years later his body remembered how to lessen the impact of her dreams. ****

**"**You're okay," he whispered into her hair, making the same soothing noises he did on the rare occasions that he looked after one of his nephews. "I'm right here, baby, it's okay."****

He waited, motionless, as Letty's body tensed for a split second. He waited for her eyes to flutter open but they never did - she did the same thing she always did, the same thing he had been dreaming about for three years - she smiled sleepily, snuggled closer to him and buried her face in his neck, forcing his chin into the same awkward position that had given him a sore neck every morning since the day he got out of prison. **  
><strong>As soon as Letty's heavy breathing turned into soft snoring Dom readjusted her tiny body just enough so that he could look down at her face. His eyes passed over every inch, taking in the familiar details like the long lashes that flared over her cheeks and the way her chin jutted out ever so slightly, as though she was angry even when she was sleeping. He smiled ruefully as he reminded himself that she probably was - it was a rare occasion that he saw a smile on her face without at least a small undercurrent of instinctual anger behind it. There were things that were different, too, he noted, his eyes jumping between carefully pencilled freckles smattering the cheeks of the girl he had never even seen wear blush and the shiny silver ring through her bottom lip. He leaned forward to kiss her lips gently, his brow furrowed at the shock of cold metal marring the warm lips that he dreamed about every night.****

It was when Letty shifted slightly to wrap one of her tiny hands around his much larger bicep that he saw the tiny tattoo on her shoulder: an ornate cross, identical to the one that was all of the sudden heavy around his own neck, with the initials 'D.T.' in crooked, scratchy text that he recognized as his own writing. Dom's jaw clenched and his comfortable appraisal of the woman in his arms turned to a confused, angry stream of thoughts. How was Letty alive, where had she been for three years, and how the hell did she end up sleeping down the hall from him in Rosa's house. Rosa who had never met Letty, who kept a shrine to a woman she didn't know out of respect for her own lost love's wishes. Dom struggled to piece together a story that he didn't know any of the parts to. ****

As much as he wanted answers, though, Dom resisted his urge to wake Letty up and demand an explanation for her absence, for disappearing and taking his only reason to try to be a good person with her. He knew instinctively that she did not know he was there and that when she woke up there would be more questions and anger, probably from both of them given her ability to be angry solely because it was her only defence mechanism when someone was angry at her, than he was prepared for right then. Instead he watched her sleep, tears pouring down his cheeks for the first time since he got that fateful phone call from Mia. ****

They laid that way for hours - Letty snoring softly, sleeping just as soundly as she ever had, and Dom lying awake and watching her, alternately trying to figure out if what was happening was real and scolding himself for trying to ruin what was probably just the most realistic dream he'd ever had. By the time the sun began to stream through the window, though, exhaustion took over and Dom was fast asleep. He didn't even flinch when Letty stirred and then woke with a start when she realized that she wasn't alone. ****

"Dom?" Letty whispered, staring incredulously at the man sleeping silently beside her. Her eyes widened and she clamped her free hand over her mouth, waiting to see if she had woken him. When he didn't stir she gingerly extracted herself from his grip and slid off of the bed as quietly as she could. With one hand still over her mouth, as if she could keep herself from even breathing, Letty let herself drop to the floor, crumpled beside the bed with her face on her knees and her eyes screwed shut, fighting burning tears. She had no idea how he had ended up in Rosa's house with her, let alone in bed with her, but the only thing on Letty's mind was how the most volatile person she had ever met had fallen asleep beside her rather than wake her up and demand answers. She wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or relieved so instead she focused on making her escape. Luckily her backpack was still packed and resting by the bedroom door, so all she had to do was pull on the dirty jeans that were on the floor beside her and she could disappear from Dominic's life for a second time. ****

it wasn't until she reached the kitchen that Letty allowed herself to take a breath. When she did all she could smell was Dom. The combination of sweat, motor oil, and the same soap he'd been using since it was still his mother buying it for him overwhelmed her. She had spent every night in Rosa's house trying to glean the slightest bit of it from a freshly laundered shirt or a pillow he hadn't used in a month, but now it filled her nose and overwhelmed her senses. With a pang of guilt Letty realized that he didn't even get that chance, the chance to survive on the knowledge that she was alive and still out there the way that she did. With a sigh Letty scrounged in her bag for a sharpie and scrawled a note on a napkin she found on the counter. She left it on the nightstand of her room, not allowing herself to stop and kiss him goodbye in case he woke up before she left the apartment. ****

Dom woke up to the sound of the front door closing. He reached for Letty with his eyes still closed but only grasped the still-warm sheets instead. ****

"Letty?" he called out, his brow furrowed as he tried to push the knowledge that she was already gone out of his mind. "Let, are you here?"****

Dom sat up and his eyes fell on the note on the nightstand. The sinking feeling in his stomach as he realized how she must have felt when he left her alone in the Dominican threatened to make him sick. He grasped blindly for the bottle of water on the edge of the small table, unable to tear his eyes away from the folded napkin that taunted him. He took a sip and tasted her Dr Pepper lip smackers, the same sickly sweet flavor she'd been wearing since she and Mia started shoplifting them in elementary school, before he picked up the torn napkin. ****

_I'm so sorry Dom. _****

**"**That's it?" he said aloud, brow furrowed. "Are you fucking kidding me?"****

Despite his certainty that she was gone Dom stalked through the large apartment, checking every room for signs of Letty. His mind was reeling as he put together small bits of information that he had taken in over the last few months without ever really examining them: the single Corona in Rosa's fridge, though she didn't drink and the fact that Dom and Brian never left any beer behind after a visit because of it. Rosa's hesitation at allowing him to stay alone in her apartment. Her insistence on Dom switching to the back bedroom after he had been sleeping in the front room for months, the room that Letty had obviously made herself at home in.****

As Dom realized that there were people in his life, people he loved, who knew that Letty was alive, his despair over the note that was still crumpled in his fist turned to rage. His mind raced as he struggled to piece together who in his family betrayed him by keeping Letty a secret and why. Dom grabbed his cellphone off of the kitchen counter and angrily punched in Rosa's number but before he pressed send he paused. He shook his head as if he could shake off the effects of the last few hours and then sent Brian a text message instead of completing his call. ****

_- Bring the girls back to Rio. I need some help. _****

It only took seconds for Brian to reply.****

_- Boys arrive for Carnivale tomorrow. We'll see you then too._****

Dom grimaced at the thought of how much harder the thousands of tourists flooding into Rio for Carnivale would make it to try and find Letty. The arrival of his friends was worrying too, as he realized that he wasn't sure who he could trust anymore. Obviously Rosa knew Letty was alive and, since the two of them had not, to the best of his knowledge, ever met, there had to be someone else who knew Letty was alive.

At Mia & Brian's house in Fiji Rosa was leaning on the kitchen counter, brow furrowed, when Brian's voice jolted her from her thoughts.

"What's up, Rosa? Packed already?" Brian asked, smirking at Mia's mild cursing while she hurriedly packed in the other room.

"How did Dom sound on the phone?" Rosa asked, ignoring Brian's question entirely.

"He texted me, why?"

"No reason," she replied hurriedly, frowning at his answer. Rosa tried to reassure herself that a lack of a raging phone call from Dom meant that nothing strange had happened to inspire him to ask them all to meet him in Rio but she couldn't help but worry that Letty had been there and hadn't cleaned up well enough, making Dom suspicious. Rosa cursed herself for giving the housekeeper the week off – what if Dom was worried that someone had been in Rosa's house in her absence? How would she explain that there really wasn't a threat to her safety. Oblivious to Brian's curious eyes appraising her strange mood Rosa pulled out her own cellphone and sent a text to a number Letty had made her save months ago but hoped she would never have to use.

_- Keep her out of Rio._

The reply came almost instantly, sending a shiver down Rosa's spine.

- _She's been there since midnight last night. _


End file.
